Pte 24841 Joseph Hunter

• Age: 32
• From: St Helens, Lancs
• Regiment: 13th KLR
• Died on Wednesday 2nd May 1917
• Commemorated at: Fauborg D'amiens
  Panel Ref: IV.F.9

Joseph was born in Thatto Heath in 1885 the son of William Hunter and his wife Charlotte (nee Anders) who were married at Sutton Parish Church on 27th May 1882. Charlotte was born at Lea Green, St Helen's whilst William was from Tarporley in Cheshire. William's occupation is shown as a miner.

Joseph was baptised with his younger sister Ellen on 13th June 1888. He was the middle child of three surviving children. He had an older brother Robert and Ellen was his younger sister. Sadly, two children had died in infancy Joseph who was the first born and Harry the youngest of all the children. 

The 1891 Census shows the family living at 12 Leicester Street, Sutton.

His father, William, died in 1892. 

By 1901 the family are living at 28 Elephant Lane. This shows Charlotte as a widow and Joseph now aged 15 is employed as a kiln dresser.

The 1911 Census shows the family are still living in Elephant Lane. Joseph now 25 is employed as a brick burner at a brick works. 

Joseph enlisted in Prescot, joining the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 24841. He subsequently transferred to the 13th Battalion of the same Regiment. 

Joseph was killed in action on 02nd May 1917 aged 32.

His effects were shared between his mother, his brother and his sister. 

He is buried at Faubourg D' Amiens Cemetery  in Arras where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"HE DIED FOR US"

The French handed over Arras to Commonwealth forces in the spring of 1916 and the system of tunnels upon which the town is built were used and developed in preparation for the major offensive planned for April 1917.

The Commonwealth section of the FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY was begun in March 1916, behind the French military cemetery established earlier. It continued to be used by field ambulances and fighting units until November 1918. The cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields and from two smaller cemeteries in the vicinity.

The cemetery contains over 2,650 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 10 of which are unidentified. The graves in the French military cemetery were removed after the war to other burial grounds and the land they had occupied was used for the construction of the Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial.

The adjacent ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.

The adjacent ARRAS FLYING SERVICES MEMORIAL commemorates more than 1,000 airmen of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force, either by attachment from other arms of the forces of the Commonwealth or by original enlistment, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who have no known grave.

During the Second World War, Arras was occupied by United Kingdom forces headquarters until the town was evacuated on 23 May 1940. Arras then remained in German hands until retaken by Commonwealth and Free French forces on 1 September 1944. The 1939-1945 War burials number 8 and comprise 3 soldiers and 4 airmen from the United Kingdom and 1 entirely unidentified casualty. Located between the 2 special memorials of the 1914-1918 War is the special memorial commemorating an officer of the United States Army Air Force, who died during the 1939-1945 War. This special memorial, is inscribed with the words "Believed to be buried in this cemetery". In addition, there are 30 war graves of other nationalities, most of them German.

Both cemetery and memorials were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick.

Joseph is commemorated on the War Memorial at St John the Evangelist Church in Ravenhead, St Helens. 

We currently have no further information on Joseph Hunter. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.